Das ist kaput

HD on my laptop decided to take a crap yesterday. It started with a slight clicking noise coming from the left hand side. Turned the machine off and no go after that. Ran some diagnostic/recovery program and now it sounds like there is a little man in there trying to pound his way out. Like an idiot I had not backed up much of anything on there. So, I lost my last several months of poker records, some pictures, and vids of 'High Stakes Poker.' I've been googling different ways to recover data off a crapped out HD and came across the practice of sticking the malfunctioning drive in the freezer and then reconnecting it. I tried it once, but to no avail. I'm gonna freeze that fucker good tomorrow and see what happens. Maybe I'll toss it in the dryer and iron it out afterwards. Who knows, it might work.

Johan the man.....

Watching the opening day game for my beloved Minnesota Twins. Johan looks pretty sharp and Tony Batista already grounded and flied out once. An out-machine for sure. Gleeman is right.

Last night I played in the blogger WSOP satty organized by Iggy. My first table had DoubleAs and pokernerd among others. Joe Speaker moved in at some point. I know all these guys have had some success and I figured I needed to get lucky and play smart to get far in the event. I got lucky some, but didn't play all that smart. It was a deep stack event and had 30 minute levels. I've always avoided deep stack events simply because of time concerns. I don't often have 8 hours to play a tourney. The first major hand I had I was dealt AA in the big blind. There was a standard raise from UTG and I popped it back and got a call. Flop came Q high I got a call on my flop bet and was reraised all in on the turn. I went into the tank and decided the guy either had QQ or KK. I made the call and saw the bad news, he held QQ. I hit my two outer on the river to double up. I started raising more pots after that and had minimal success. The table was stocked enough to realize what I was doing and I started to get played back at more, but I still hovered around 10K in chips and was in the top 10. Somewhere around the second hour I got KK in the cut off and got a call from a someone who limped UTG. Flop came 7,8,2 and I got checkraised. Tanked again. I realize 77 and 88 are possible holdings here, but I figured I was just as likely up against 99-JJ(I guess 27 is even possible in a blogger event). I put the player all in and saw I was up against top set. No two outer this time. Went out around the end of hour 3 with AK to AA. The competition was good though, and that is refreshing after playing against donks most of the time in cheap ass SNGs and ring games. In a very classy move Iggy kicked in an extra few hundred to get the prize pool high enough to send two bloggers.

Twins update: Johan just gave up a bomb to one of the 24 Molina's who play catcher and have the least athletic looking frames in baseball. Suuuper excited to see the Twinkies when the come to MKE in May. The experience of watching games at Miller Park is 100 times more enjoyable than going to a game at the Metrodome.

Why?:

Seats all face homeplate.
Tailgating at Miller Park.
Outdoors (mostly).

out.

no cigar......

Played in a winner take all satellite for a seat in a 1K buyin wsop tourney organized by MissT. Finished 2nd :( . I got lucky twice late when my A7 outflopped A10 and when I rivered a Q with AQ to take down AK. Went out when I missed my flush draw to middle pair. When we were down to 4, my play seemed to draw the ire of a couple of jerks cheering on the eventual 4th place finisher. They were upset that my A7 beat A10 and that I called with KQ after I had been reraised. My KQ took down JJ and crippled their buddy. It was winner take all fellas.

The heads up match lasted about 15 mins. The first hand I get KK and push to his raise, hoping it would look like a huge overbet. He goes into the tank and starts to chat and like a total fucking moron I type "tired." He folds realizing I am strong there. He said he had KQ. He had earlier called 2 of my all ins with KJ off. Shoulda kept my mouth shut. At one point I had a slight lead and found 109H in the BB. I called a small raise and the flop came down 3QJ, I called a small bet, and 3h came, giving str8 and flush draws. He pushes on the turn. Now, it is obviously a donk play to call here, but it was tempting as HELL when he threw all his chips in there. One push of the button and I might have won the seat.

untitled #5

I haven't played much poker lately. Working on throwing together a few publications and qualifying examinations. Despite the fact that I don't have anywhere near the roll for it, I did play my first extended 5/10$ stud session about a week ago. I ended down about 10 BB, but I felt good about how I stacked up to other players. I wouldv'e been up if not for a few misreads and 1 hand where someone caught their gutshot on me and scooped up a $180 pot (whine, whine, whine).

I now have 17K+ FPP's on pokerstars. I could buy a 4GB Ipod Nano, an entry into the 200+15 sunday tourney, 13 copies of 'Poker Champion Chris Moneymaker' by Chris Moneymaker and Daniel Pasner, or 34 stainless steel pokerstars coffee mugs.

I plan on playing some smaller wsop sat's in the coming weeks organized by some folks at RGP and, possibly some blogger events. Iggy set one up at paradise. I might crash that one even though I'v never played there.

RIP Kirby.

I choose to ignore personal responsibility.

I am a scientist. Speaking in very broad terms, I study how the brain influences behavior and vice versa. It's a branch of psychology typically called 'behavioral neuroscience.' The goal of psychology is to be able to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior. Surely some would argue, but to be able to make cause and effect statements about the behavior of an organism we have to assume that behavior has a natural cause and is not the result of the 'free will' which resides mysteriously tucked away somewhere deep inside all of us. Yes, I said 'us.' If we are going to pursue a science of human behavior, we cannot explain behavior as the result of free will. This is a hard pill to swallow, even for those of us who are studying it. We don't chose anything. Someone might say, "what made you study the brain, surely it was your choice." No, it wasn't. I didn't choose to study the brain. There had to have been an utterly complex arrangment of factors and circumstances that led me here. Behavior is so complex that I think the notion of free will is simply a cloaked way of saying "it's too hard to understand it." Free will is the lazy way out. Strict determinism throws notions of morality and personal responsibility out the window. Is this not dangerous? Take the actions of a serial killer. If they didn't choose to kill 30 people, then how can they be punished for it? My answer is simple, it's true that they didn't choose to do it, but they need to removed from society to protect others.

The buzz lately in the poker world has been about a couple of ultra successful teenage poker players got busted cheating in tournaments. As these events transpired some bloggers have noted that these kids are not taking responsibility for their own actions. As if it would be all better if ZeeJustin said, "you know what, my fault, I did it just because I chose to do it." To me that's a lazy way of thinking. To truly understand why this happened we need to discover the circumstances. What reinforcement was he getting from cheating? What maintained this behavior. Money, more money, recognition. Q: Why aren't we all cheating then, you might ask??? We all like winning money; certainly a main reason why we play poker. A: circumstances. we don't cheat at poker because at some point along the way we were taught or told not to. I got caught cheating in 9th grade physical science class (oh, the irony). Being a naive little turd, I though I could take a test in front of the teacher with a 3 foot long cheat sheet. He caught me after about 15 seconds, berated me in front of class, and gave me an F for the test. 0/185 pts. This test was worth about 35 percent of total grade and I had to bust my ass to get D- in the class. The sense of gratification I got from that D- was worth way more than any of the classes I breezed my way through and got A's. I bet alot of you have had similar experiences. That's why you and I don't cheat at poker. These experiences didn't endow in us some sense of personal responsibilty. That's not what I would call it. I don't cheat because when Mr. Holm berated me in front of class I felt like the biggest dink in the world. Simply put, it was aversive. And organsims avoid repeating things that are aversive. We are hard fucking wired to do so.

this things i believe

Took down a stud tourney on stars this afternoon. First time winning the 20+2. I had the chiplead for the last 1.5 hours only losing it for a few hands.


Write your congressmen now. There is a bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. that is designed at putting the kabosh on online gaming and making criminals of us all. If you don't know who represents you, it's time to find out. Unsatisfied with all the gaffes at home and abroad, it appears that now the republicans want to strip the simple pleasures of many average joe's and average jane's away by preventing us from gaming online. well done. how many months 'till november?????????

untitled #5

I was positively giddy last night before going to bed. I had just played about 200 hands on THE most loose 2/4 7CS table I had ever played on. There was stretch where our table had 3 pots that were $130+ each. I won one of those when my rolled 6s made a full house. The betting was capped 3-way on every street except 7th. One player showed 10s up and the other Ace high (no shit). Mr Ace High was a lunatic who capped with anything. He eventually dropped about 300 and left. I swear he was on some sort of drunken megatilt where he was happy to give away his money. Mrs. 10s up was also crazy and capped with pretty much any pair. I think they had both taken some sort of booze and trucker-strength speed concoction. When you get two of those people on the same table it turns into a some kind of deranged poker fantasy. 6-way capped pots on third. 3-bets with split 5s. calling 3 bets cold with a two gap inside straight draw. Everyone wants to get a piece of the action, so they start playing crap cards. I tried being ultra-selective only pushing when I made a good hand. It worked for the most part as I left up ~40BB. Usually I only see this sort of action when all the drunks come donk off money Friday and Saturday night. It was spendipulous!

untitled #4

I don't like to post hand histories, but I need to publically chastise my play in order to get better. Here a critique of the hand I busted out on in the freeroll. As you can see, I was doing pretty well. These are the sort of hands that get me into trouble. I'm a fish who can't fold TPTK. I fold on the turn there and I still have 6K in chips which is about average for the table. Instead I managed to tangle with the only person at the table who could knock me out. numbskull. i might as well walk around drooling, dragging my knuckles, and eating what I can kill with by bare hands.

PokerStars Game #4095850860: Tournament #18733039, Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2006/02/25 - 16:41:10 (ET)
Table '18733039 328' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: mwp74 (6630 in chips)
Seat 2: pandelirium (4008 in chips)
Seat 3: HarryO44 (3213 in chips)
Seat 4: Hawkdog1 (4023 in chips)
Seat 5: alex328ci (10210 in chips)
Seat 6: ztrain44 (6834 in chips)
Seat 7: rgpars (8921 in chips)
Seat 8: SLIME51 (5566 in chips)
Seat 9: pdk01 (1895 in chips) is sitting out
mwp74: posts the ante 25
pandelirium: posts the ante 25
HarryO44: posts the ante 25
Hawkdog1: posts the ante 25
alex328ci: posts the ante 25
ztrain44: posts the ante 25
rgpars: posts the ante 25
SLIME51: posts the ante 25
pdk01: posts the ante 25
Hawkdog1: posts small blind 100
alex328ci: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to rgpars [Qd Ac]
alex328ci said, "u ain't even gonna cash"
SLIME51 said, "its ok i take u out with me"
ztrain44: folds
rgpars: raises 400 to 600 (ok move to start with)
SLIME51: folds
pdk01: folds
mwp74: folds
pandelirium: folds
HarryO44: folds
Hawkdog1: folds
alex328ci: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [3h 8d Qh]
alex328ci: bets 600
rgpars: raises 1600 to 2200 (let's see what he has)
alex328ci: calls 1600 (must be something; probably a flush draw)
*** TURN *** [3h 8d Qh] [2h]
SLIME51 said, "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
alex328ci: bets 1400
rgpars: raises 4696 to 6096 and is all-in (wtf are you doing??????)
alex328ci: calls 4696
SLIME51 said, "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
*** RIVER *** [3h 8d Qh 2h] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
alex328ci: shows [4h 7h] (a flush, Queen high)
rgpars: shows [Qd Ac] (a pair of Queens)
alex328ci collected 18117 from pot
alex328ci said, "whatever u say captain"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 18117 | Rake 0
Board [3h 8d Qh 2h 9c]
Seat 1: mwp74 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: pandelirium folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: HarryO44 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Hawkdog1 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: alex328ci (big blind) showed [4h 7h] and won (18117) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 6: ztrain44 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: rgpars showed [Qd Ac] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 8: SLIME51 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: pdk01 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

untitled #3

I am about to sit down and play the 100K freeroll on stars. Just folded the first hand....

The winter olympics is coming to an end. I had the misfortune of watching the US hockey team play a few games. They were awful. Explain to me how Finland, a country the size of my homestate Minnesota, fields a hockey team that leaps and bounds better than the US. And apparently, the US has not produced a defensemen worth a damn in the last 15 years as Chelios and that albatross Hatcher logged most of the ice time.

Here is Felicia Lee's 'Part One' of a multi-part post on 7CS. I am loving it.

On president's day I was within ~50 ft of our president with my middle finger extended at his motorcade. I don't care if I looked like a kook, it felt good. He was in town to talk about his energy policy, which now is apparently focused on developing technologies to wean us off fossil fuels. Excuse me if I am a little skeptical, but I tend to get that way when a former Texas 'oilman' starts talking about ways to make better hybrid cars.

untitled #2

lmao. stats

During current Stud session you were dealt 59 hands and:
- saw fourth street 18 times (30%)
- saw fifth street 12 times (20%)
- saw sixth street 9 times (15%)
- reached showdown 9 times (15%)
Pots won at showdown - 9 of 9 (100%)
Pots won without showdown - 1

untitled #1

I keep plugging away on pokerstars, even though I'm still in a bit of a downswing. Somehow, I managed to have a -50BB session of limit O8 yesterday playing the 1/2$ tables. It was loads of fun. I was also down about 20BB playing stud, but managed to get that in the black before I quit. It's hard not let the shit bother you. Although, I was able to make myself feel better by thinking back about year ago when I had a 200 dollar bankroll and was trying to build it up playing 5 dollar SNGs. Now, thanks to this little hobby, I can take my girlfriend out more and buy a few things that I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

I am in the middle of a good session at O8. Just got back to back quads. pretty nuts.


time to go have a drink....

Millionaires shooting millionaires

Not all that often does one millionaire shoot another in the face by accident. This one involves VP Cheney. Tough week Dick.

The sunday 750K guarantee is running right now on pokerstars. 5500+ people are in it. Can you believe that? So many people entered that the software wasn't equipped to give the proper payouts. Doesn't seem like the "fad" is going away to me.

Speaking of pokerstars, I've made it up to 10,000 FPPs. At this point I can opt to name 4 stars after someone(s), or but a lettermans jacket. I think I'll hold out for something better. Only 83,000 more FPPs and I can enter in at $1500 buy-in event at the WSOP.

Got killed again on stars last night. I think I am going to give 7CS a break for awhile. The last few weeks have been brutal. I have played probably 1500 hands and have been rolled up ~10 times and won only once when I made quad Kings. Problem with giving it a break is, it's the one ring game that I have consistently made money on for the past year. But after losing my final hand last night with rolled 6s, I am taking that as an omen and taking a few days off.

retrospecticus

Had some rough sessions this weekend. I don't think I've ever had this bad of a run in 7CS ever. I also managed to tilt off a fair amount after getting reamed in the initial 7CS session. One day I'll learn to logoff when running bad. I dropped down in limits and played some yesterday and had a nice session ending up about 40BB. I also played pretty well in 2 multi-table SNGs yesterday, but I still have alot of ground to make up due to Friday's debacle.

Rapid-fire thoughts:
superbowl sucked. mick jagger has flabby arms. car is loud. nights are cold. total paranoia.

Another doozy

Played 200 hands over the last 24 hours. Zero wins at showdown. Un-f**king-real.

During current Stud session you were dealt 60 hands and:
- saw fourth street 18 times (30%)
- saw fifth street 13 times (21%)
- saw sixth street 8 times (13%)
- reached showdown 4 times (6%)
Pots won at showdown - 0 of 4 (0%)
Pots won without showdown - 6

Apparently, the proper stategy is avoid playing big split pairs, 3 flushes, and big concealed pairs.

pokerstars is rigged

During current Stud session you were dealt 100 hands and:
- saw fourth street 22 times (22%)
- saw fifth street 16 times (16%)
- saw sixth street 10 times (10%)
- reached showdown 8 times (8%)
Pots won at showdown - 0 of 8 (0%)
Pots won without showdown - 2


lost with rolled aces, queens full, and every other possible way u could imagine. Didn't show down anything worse than Qs up. Lost EVERY one.

Republican she-male wants to kill liberal judges

Yep, Ann Coulter wishes someone would poison Justice John Paul Stevens. But, it's okay since she said she was only joking. Riiiiight. Ok then, I wish someone would put a poisonous pubic hair in Clarence Thomas' coke. Oh, I'm only kidding.

10 to 500 in 2 days

I started playing poker online about 2 years ago on PokerRoom.com. Play money for awhile and then threw in 50 bucks. That didn't last very long as I decided that I was good enough and had the bankroll to play 2/4 limit hold'em. I have the bankroll now to play 2/4 hold'em, but still ain't good enough (i'm dead serious). I ended up dropping a few hundred and didn’t play there for about 1 year. This fall I threw in a few hundred to take advantage of a bonus. I withdrew what I earned after a month or so. A couple of days ago I got an email saying that they want my business back and have put a free $10 bucks in my account. I played a few SNGs over the last few days and got the account up to $30. I decided to “let it ride” and played a 5+rebuy today. I start the tourney very quietly. No good cards to be seen. I re-bought about 30 mins in to get my stack up to T2700. With about 15 mins left until the break I am still getting crap and decide to gamble with pocket 2s. I lose that race and am down around T800. I go into the tourney lobby to rebuy and notice that it is a 1rebuy +1add on tourney. So, I am sitting there damn near in last place waiting until the break so I can add on. I made it to the break, added on, and looked to double up. A little later I get 77 in the BB. A minimum raise is made and one caller. I decided to push. Both of them called another 1.5K in chips. Board read 10 high and I won the hand. I got lucky once not too long later when my AQ flopped a Q against AK. Don’t remember too many hands after that. I was able to get my stack up very quickly and was 1^st or 2^nd in chips when it was bubble time and had about 5x the chips of anyone at my table. I raised about 30% of the hands for 3-4 orbits and I didn’t get played with once. It really is amazing how passive people become just to be able to win back their buy-ins. I make it to the final table 5^th in chips. Survive some races and get down to 3 handed with 100K in chips with the other two having ~300K. Fortunately one of them was a total donk and he doubled me up and then called my all in with K6 (I held AK). Made a pretty shitty play HU. I had A2 suited, and called a raise. Flop came 2 7 10 rainbow. Called his bet w/ the hope that he would slow down and fold to my turn bet. Turn was 10s, giving me 2 pair and flush draw. I lead out/raised all in. He had K10 and it held. I think I should have raised his flop bet to see if he actually had something. By waiting to the turn I didn’t have necessary information and I was already committed to the pot.

I wish I could quit you

Yep, saw brokeback mountain last night. It was pretty good, not anything all that special. It was pretty subdued and I could only understand about 35% of the words that came out of Heath Ledger's mouth. He sounded like Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade. "Yep, I reckon Jack and I are fishin' buddies. mmm hmm."

Placed 4th in 20+2 stud tourney a few days ago on stars. I was in real good shape on the bubble with about 11K and the chip leader having about 15K. My table was 4 handed and we had 3 of the top 4 stacks. I've been in this situation a handful of times and it has been a great time to steal, especially if you have a good sized stack. I made a couple of steal attempts early that failed. I tightened up a bit until I caught (K4)K. I raised it up and was popped by the bring in who had an 8 showing. I called and popped it on 5th when I made kings up and was reraised with 8Q3. 6th was seemingly rags for both of us and I called his turn and river bets. He hit another Q on 7th and made Qs full. That sucked. I had to put special gloves on to prevent myself from cursing in the chat box. Anyhow, if I win that hand I am top dog and in good shape to take that thing down. Anyhow, it took a LONG time for the bubblel to burst and the big stack at our table was running over people. I was able to stay aggressive though and get my stack around 6K at before the final table. I went out with (7K)7 to the bring ins concealed 10s. Neither of us improved and I was done.

Went to the Bradley Center on tues to catch the T-wolves play the Bucks. The wolves looked like hell and lost. They have been playing like absolute hell lately. Hopefully the wins over Chicago and Denver get them back on track.

i hate thinking of titles for blog posts

I keep on getting sucked out on during pokerstars ring games, tourneys, and sit n go's. A bad streak that happened to coincide with cashing out 1K. Cashout curse? Probably not. Just a few bad decisions to go with a good amount of bad luck. Fortunately for me, I have been killing the games on full tilt the last week. I even had several winning sessions at limit holdem, which for me, is a rarity.

Full tilt is running an interesting promotion. Play for 28 straight days in January and get into a 10K freeroll. Sounds like a pretty good deal. I am up to 8 straight.

Pokerstars announced the VIP club thing. Finally a site where players can get something other than a t-shirt and a hat for hours of playing.

Did a big end of the year number cruching for my play in 2005. Pretty happy with where I have been able to get. Discovered that I can consistently win at the lower limits in stud and pot limit omaha. Still trying to figure out limit holdem and omaha h/l. I would like to improve my tournament play, but this is kinda difficult given that I don't play that many. I still managed to end up in the black on tourney play thanks in large part to several high finishes in stud tourneys and a few in no limit.

I don't really have any huge goals in 2006. If the circumstances allow it, I would like to play the $1500 7 card stud event at this year's wsop. We'll see what happens.

ought 6

Back from 'le vacation extraordinaire.' went from milwaukee to fargo to las vegas to fargo to milwaukee. here are some highlights:

-got Ali G show, seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, for xmas.
-met girlfriend of 4 years' family.
-had 6 sam adams, got a str8 flush (which netted me a $50 food comp), and ended up 50 bucks ahead in a 2/4 limit game at Imperial Palace.
-played roulette for the first time. won 15 bucks.
-chinese food at barbary coast.
-went to Bellagio pokeroom, where I was basically ignored and made to feel like an ass when I inquired about the 1-5 stud game (wasn't running). however, caught a peek inside Bobby's room and saw Jen Harmon and the back of Doyle's head.
-read half of 'zen and the art of poker' on the flight back to fargo.
-sat in the plane for 45 minutes after landing. both of the gates at hector int'l were occupied.
-got a cold, watched the movie 'hitch' on new years eve.